1. Heat a little olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Crumble the tempeh into the skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it starts to brown. Add roughly 2 tsp of soy sauce, stir, and set aside.

2. Heat a little more olive oil in a stock pot. Add the diced onion, chopped bell peppers, and minced garlic. Cook just until they start to soften.

4. I had to add vegetable broth to get the right consistency. I think I used about 3/4 of a cup. I suggest adding a little to start and adjusting based on the look and taste. Same thing for the salt and pepper.

5. Cook for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Ladle into bowls and top with shredded cheese, if you’re into that.

Last night I tried out a new recipe for vegan low-carb risotto made with cauliflower instead of rice. It was pretty fantastic. I mostly followed this recipe from Vegangela. She tops her risotto with mushrooms but, as we are not mushroom fans, I made a little stir fry of yellow squash, spinach, and garlic instead to top our risotto.

It was a bit labor-intensive because I was essentially juggling three dishes at once but I think now that I’ve done it and know what works, it will go a lot smoother the next time. The only other complaint is there’s a food processor to clean at the end. Sorry, Robbie! It is a really tasty, really healthy meal low in carbs and fat but full of flavor.

We like to take one night trips to Orlando on a Saturday every once in a while. We went this past weekend and checked out some new bars that we really like. We kinda have it down to a science at this point. We stay at the Courtyard Orlando Downtown. We go to the always delicious Ethos Vegan Kitchen (now in Winter Park) for dinner. Then we drop the car off at the hotel and walk to bars downtown. Once it’s dance o’clock, we walk to the Bar-BQ-Bar/Sky Sixty/Eye Spy compound and hope the DJ plays all the favorites. As the night went on, my photos got darker, blurrier, and generally unusable so here are some highlights from the first few stops.

After getting Sookie settled in with her DogVacay sitter and checking in to the hotel, we went to an early dinner at Ethos Vegan Kitchen. We got the Boxty appetizer which is two potato pancakes with scallions and sour cream on top. It was good, but not incredible.

Robbie with the Boxty appetizer

For our entrees, Robbie got the Bay Cakes which are vegan “crab” cakes. He said the dipping sauce was amazing and really made the dish authentic.

Robbie’s Bay Cakes

I got a new dish, the Blackened Tempeh. It wasn’t blackened in the way that I understand blackened to be, but it was flavorful and good. I liked the collard greens and fresh salsa too.

Angie’s Blackened Tempeh

After dropping the car off at the hotel and changing into our dancing clothes, we walked down Orange Avenue. Our first stop was The Courtesy. They take their craft cocktails very seriously. Robbie had a Blue Point IPA that he really liked and I loved my Seba Sour, recommended by the bartender. It is amongst the top three fanciest drinks I’ve ever had, was extremely tasty, and full of booze, so five stars on that.

Angie’s Seba Sour at The Courtesy

We tried another new-to-us bar just down the street called The Woods. I had a couple of pretty great vodka gimlets and Robbie had a Widmer Upheaval IPA then switched to whiskey with an Old Fashioned. The bar itself is cool and the bartenders were nice. The music was kind of bad in there but they have a very impressively stocked bar with just about anything you could want, including fresh ingredients for craft cocktails.

We walked to a secret speakeasy called Hanson’s Shoe Repair. I called the speakeasy on the drive to Orlando and left a voicemail. I was later texted back with the secret password. They only allow 30 people in at a time so we had to wait for a little while downstairs in another bar called NV Art Bar. NV is basically a really expensive, pretty lame waiting room for Hanson’s Shoe Repair. It has good reviews online but I honestly don’t see why; I have a better bar inside my house. Hanson’s Shoe Repair was definitely worth the wait for the kitsch factor and the expertly made drinks. I had the Danny Trejo and Robbie had an Old Fashioned. Both were excellent. Their outside upstairs patio is really adorable and would be perfect for a slightly warmer night. They have speakeasy rules posted and one of them is no photos so…I have no photos.

It was almost 11:00 so we hoped the dancing would be picking up over at Eye Spy. We entered through Bar-BQ-Bar. It took a little bit for things to get going and it wasn’t the best night we’ve had there as far as the music played or the fellow customers but it was still a great night. The DJ played some jamz and we danced and danced.

The next day we went to Frank & Steins for lunch before going to pick up Sookie-dog. We had been once before for drinks and to play tabletop shuffleboard and saw they have veggie hot dogs on the menu. Sadly, they sold out of veggie dogs the night before. We got a decent spinach dip but our entrees were pretty bad. Our drinks were good though. Robbie got Bell’s Hopslam on draft which is kind of a miracle. We would definitely go back to drink and play games and probably to give the veggie dogs a try.

Orlando Bars We Visited & Liked on Past Trips

Redlight Redlight: A craft beer and wine bar. It has been in three locations over the years. The latest incarnation is by far the best.

BART: A small bar offering a good but small selection of beer in bottles and wines. They have old arcade games you can play for free while having a drink. It’s a very unique place that I hope continues to live on. You should go to it and actually purchase something unlike most of the people in there.

Independent Bar: More of a dance club really. It has two levels and a big screen where they show music videos. There are almost always goth characters there to dance on the 80s/Industrial/New Wave nights. I do appreciate a good goth in 2014.

Milk Bar: A small but cute neighborhood bar. Robbie got a beer he was impressed with but they must not have had wine because I’m pretty sure I got a cider.

Sonoma Draught House: A nice place even if it’s a little corporate feeling. They have 49 draft beers and a full bar. We had good drinks and a cheese plate on our previous visit.

Orlando Bar We’d Like to Visit Next Time

Tap & Grind: A craft beer bar downtown. We read good things but didn’t make it there on this trip.

I made this new to us chili recipe this weekend. It’s by the always wonderful Isa Chandra Moskowitz of the Post Punk Kitchen. Here’s a link to her full recipe.

I made a few changes because I always have to change things at least a little, it seems. I skipped the boiling the tempeh step because I think tempeh is delicious without this step which, in my view, just takes more time and creates more dishes to wash. I cooked the veggies alone in a little olive oil for maybe eight minutes then added the crumbled tempeh to the pot. I used dried oregano. I used just over a half of a cup of beer because I couldn’t find one lonely can of Negra Modelo to buy and I wasn’t very confident in the dark Mexican beer that I bought instead. I used 1 cup of vegetable broth and made up for the missing beer and broth liquid by adding about a 3/4 of a cup of water. I cooked covered for only about 20 minutes and then served without the maple syrup, lemon, or cilantro. I topped mine with some shredded reduced fat Mexican cheese because my name is Angeleen and I am a cheese addict.

Robbie and I both really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to eating the leftovers (it made quite a bit) for dinner tonight.

This is one of many great recipes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz/The Post Punk Kitchen that I make semi-regularly. It’s fast, healthy, and we both love to eat it.

Garlicky Thyme Tempeh

This is the marinade. I try to marinate the tempeh in this for at least an hour.

I follow her recipe except for a few little changes. I never have fresh thyme so I use about one tablespoon of dried thyme. I also don’t own white balsamic vinegar so I use one tablespoon of regular balsamic instead as she suggests. I tried her tempeh steaming technique once on a different recipe and I found it adds a lot of time to the recipe but doesn’t make the tempeh taste or feel any different in my opinion. I’ve been skipping that part and going right to the marinating and I think it tastes great that way. I like the flavor of tempeh anyway so I see no need to “take away the beaniness”.

This is one of many great recipes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Appetite for Reduction: 125 Fast and Filling Low-Fat Vegan Recipes. For some silly reason, I’d only made this once before (in my pre-blog days). Other than the time it takes to wash and chop the vegetables, it cooks up really quickly, makes a lot of food, and is so tasty.

I followed her directions pretty closely. My changes: skimped on the carrots, skipped the agave nectar, and added browned tempeh for some protein.

It is so hot here! Time for slow cooking and avoiding the oven. I found this list of vegetarian crockpot recipes in a post on Reddit. I decided to modify this Vegetarian Crockpot Curry Recipe to enjoy last night. The complete recipe with my changes is below. I went overboard with the chopped tomatoes. I think mostly because of that this dish wasn’t much of a curry, per se. We both still liked it. I used the whole box of Pomi Chopped Tomatoes but I will definitely reduce that to three quarters of the box or less in the future.

This is my quesadilla version of Cooking Light’s tempeh fajitas. The marinade and fajita style onions and peppers are delicious but Robbie didn’t like how the fajita always fell apart on him. I’m an admitted cheese addict and I like to throw in some spinach wherever I can so I prefer the quesadilla way too.

In a small saucepan, combine the first seven ingredients and bring to a boil.

While you’re waiting for the marinade to boil, prepare the tempeh. Cut it in half horizontally then cut each half into six pieces lengthwise. Place the tempeh in a dish that won’t melt. I used a glass brownie pan.

Pour the hot marinade over the tempeh and let it marinate for at least an hour in the fridge.

While the tempeh is marinating, cut the onion and green bell pepper into strips, fajita-style.

Once your tempeh has completed its marinating you can begin cooking up your onion and pepper strips. Spray a skillet with some olive oil and heat it to medium heat. Add the onion and pepper strips and cook until they start to brown but are still crisp.

Set the onion and pepper strips aside and use the same skillet to brown the tempeh in vegetable oil. I cook it for about 6 minutes on each side while periodically drizzling more marinade on the upturned side. Flip over and repeat with the other side.

While you’re waiting on the tempeh to brown you can begin to construct the quesadillas by putting a tortilla on a plate for each person eating. Spread shredded cheese on the bottom half of each tortilla.

When the tempeh is ready, remove it from the heat. Arrange 3-4 tempeh strips on top of the cheese section of each tortilla. Top with a generous amount of grilled pepper and onion strips. Next, place spinach leaves on top and sprinkle some more cheese on top of that.

Fold the quesadillas over and cook them in olive oil in the same pan you’ve been using. Flip over once the first side is starting to brown. Cut into quarters and top with your favorite salsa.

I only got three quesadillas out of this because I ran out of tempeh. There was enough of everything else to make more so add in another package of tempeh to get 4-6 quesadillas.

This is something I used to make when I was a single lady because it’s fast, easy, and makes enough to eat a few times. I also happen to think it tastes amazing and, if you get a low sugar BBQ sauce and don’t get crazy with the bread and (optional) cheese topping, it’s not bad for you either.

A shot of the Sloppy Joe filling. First thing I’ve cooked at our new house!

1. Chop the onion and bell peppers into a medium-sized chunks.
2. Heat some vegetable oil in a large-ish pan.
3. Saute the onion and bell peppers for a couple of minutes. I like to keep the veggies on the crisp side for this recipe.
4. Crumble the two packages of tempeh into the pan and stir to combine. Cook for about 5 minutes to brown the tempeh.
5. Pour a cup of BBQ sauce into the pan. Stir to combine and cook just until everything is warm.
6, Pile a ton of the tempeh mixture onto a toasted bun bottom, top with a slice of Swiss cheese, then top with the bun top.

The filling is going to squeeze out the sides of the bun but that’s part of the Sloppy Joe experience. Come armed with a fork and some napkins.

Cute Husband loves BLT sandwiches. I made this vegan version with marinated, baked tempeh. I followed this recipe for tempeh bacon from Vegetarian Times. While the bacon was baking, I toasted two slices of whole wheat bread for each sandwich. To construct a sandwich, put a little Vegenaise on one slice of bread then top with fresh spinach leaves (you can use lettuce if you’re a purist) and slices of tomato followed by a heaping helping of tempeh bacon and the second piece of bread.

These were easy and tasty. The addition of the liquid smoke to the marinade goes a long way toward achieving the bacon flavor.

I made a strawberry salad to go with it. The salad is mixed field greens, quartered strawberries, reduced fat feta cheese, and fat free raspberry dressing. Yummy!